The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 2, 1924, Page 12

(Continued from page 5) tity of the Workers Party? Not only was such a proposal never made, but the so greatly disgraced old niajority of the Executive com- batted energetically even the desire of the close allies of Comrade Lore to give up the identity of the Fed- erated Farmer-Labor Party within a greater Labor Party. It declared again and again that the Labor Party in itself is not our aim, but that it must simply create more fa- vorable conditions for the organiza- tion of the proletariat as a class. And for this reason our task after the founding of the Labor Party is not solved. And an ‘organized left wing in this Labor Party will make our task considerably lighter. This left wing is the Federated Farmer- Labor Party, If at any time the Executive or any one of its members made a pro- posal such as the one intimated. by you, it would have been your urgent daty, Comrade Lore, at the deciding session of the Executive not simply to give a few shabby moments to the whole object of discussion, as you did, but you should have sound- ed the alarm, by immediately bring- ing up accusation against the treach- erous Executive before the Commun- ist International. You did not do that, because no such proposal or similar proposal was ever made by anyone at any time. To make this assertion however, at this time in the debate, to say the least, is not a wholly irreproachable tactic for @ guardian of pure Communist prin- ciples. The Compromise Bugaboo. In the discussion there is constant talk of compromise with the lower middle class. Who has ever made such a proposal? Concessions are proposed. But not concessions to the dower middie class; only concessions to the working class whose minds are unfortunately still filled with lower middie class illusions. No compromise with the lower middle class is proposed. But also no flight from the great mass of ‘workers and poor farmers, simply because they have not yet freed themselves from all capitalist ide- ology. Furthermore, we'should do every- thing, to snatch the workers and poor farmers from the leadership of the lower middle class and to sep- arate them from the lower middle class. If we do not succeed in doing this we will at least not per- mit the lower middle class to sep- arate us from the laboring masses thru our own free and voluntary abdication. And finally we should warn the workers in this case of the resuits of their submission to the leadership of lower middle class politicians, We should prophesy the unavoidable de- ception, which such a leadership must result in for the massés of workers and poor farmers. But we should not be merely prophets; we must in the first place have a policy. Thus, we must do everything that is necessary, in order to convert our momentary defeat into a later vic- tory, but we must not flee. To flee would mean that we give up the fight for the leadership. of these masses and that we surrender these masses to the lower middie class leadership fer better or for worse. In fighting for the souls of the laboring masses and revolutionary DS OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE THIRD PARTY farmers we can not expect to be vic-{front, the characterization made by torious immediately in the first en-| Comrade Zinoviey at the Enlarged counter. Therefore, shown up the lower middle class| national after we have| Executive of the Communist Inter- in February applies to sufficiently, we will declare that we| these comrades in our Party. Zino- will not desert the laboring masses| Viev said there that the right wing despite their mistake which in our}of the French Party fought against opinion they have made. We will support their candidates and so pre- pare the school of experience for the workers, which will complete what our propaganda has not completed, the destruction of lower middle class illusions of the laboring masses. We will therefore support. the...lower middle class politicians, in the words of Lenin, asa rope supports a hanged man. To see a compromise with the ‘lower middle class in the proposed tactics of the Executive, or even an attempt to dissolve our party in a lower middle class patty shows’ a great lack of understanding of the problems before us or it shows an opposition to the united front tactic. Nobody wants a compromise with the lower middle class. But in. the interest of .the successful achieve- ment of the united front tactics we must make concession to the petty bourgeois ideology of the laboring masses, Only in this way can we hope to overcome this ideology in common action.” : j The tactics of the united front have their dangers, especially for such comrades who fear too strong a test of their Communist fundamentals. Such comrades at times convince themselves that their stand is more radical, more ‘pure in principle than that of the opponents of concrete united front tactics. But:the charac- terization of the right elements of the Communist Party of whieh was hostile to the united PARLIAMENTARISM (Continued from Page 1) talists; the I. W. W. sets all its hopes on the direct economic revolutionary action of the industrial unions in the struggle against the capitalists. Against this counter-revolutionary and revolutionary anti-political at- titude of the American Federation of Labor and the I. W. W. the Socialist Party never opposed a consistent revolutionary political tactic. The right wing of the Socialist Party (the Victor Bergers, Morris Hillquits and Meyer Londons} have degraded and narrowed political activity into elec- tion campaigns and into parliamen- tary -activity. The election ‘cam- paigns. were not utilized by them to mobilize the masses, but as a means to grab seats in Congress. The pro- letarian participation in Congress they did not use for revolutionary propaganda or for awakening the class consciousness of the working class, but as a mgans to secure small, insignificant patchwork reforms with- in the capitalist system. The left wing of the Socialist Party was justly disgusted with the shallow opportunist tactics of the right wing, but out of its disgust it did not develop the correct. tactic of revolutionary parliamentarism, only CHAPLIN'S PRISON SONGS HEARD I CHICAGO THEATRE Set to Music by Max Oberndorfer By ALFRED V. FRANKENSTEIN Ralph Chaplin’s “Night in the Cell House,” “Prison Reveille,” and “Prison Nocturne,” set to music by Marx E. Obendorfer, were sung by Raymund Koch, baritone, at the first concert of the Chicago Solo orchestra at the Blackstone theatre on January, 31. The poems are cleverly set. The words are chanted, rather than sung, and orches- tral accompaniment reflects skilful- ly the poignant protest of the working class poet against his iron cage. Mr. Koch, one felt, was not sin- cere in his interpretation. He seems never to have felt the revolution- small orchestras, an anti-parliamentarism on principle. The right wing Socialists have re- placed the direct action of the masses by miserable opportunist action of individual members of ‘Congress. The left wing of the Socialist. Party did not adduce the correct lessons namely, that direct mass action in the factories, in the unions, on the streets, must be combined with a revolutionary stand in Congress and in the various state legislatures, but it rejected parliamentarism - entirely without criticism, and it ridiculed all election campaigns. ‘ : The Communist Party in America, has arisen out of three elements: the American Federation of Labor trade unionists, I: W. W.’s and left wing Socialists. All these three grou were opponents of political action altogether, or were against parlia-' mentarism. It is therefore no won- der that the young Communist became a prey to anti-parliamentary cretinism and rejected all parlia- mentary activity. The Workers Party of today, has einer g ly solved the question of political action and has also allotted to election campaigns and participation in parliament their proper place within general political activity, at least in theory. But in ary fire of Ralph Chaplin, never to have felt his dreams and desires broken on the wheel of greed. And so the poems lost some of their meaning and effect. A Symphony Departure The Chicago Solo orchestra con- sists of twenty five instrumental- ists, conducted by Eric De Lamar- ter. Small concert orchestras are no new thing in Chicago, for the Little Symphony, George Dasch, di- rector, has existed here for several years. The difference is that Mr. Dasch’s orchestra plays standard symphonic music, cut down for small orchestras, while De Lamar- ter’s will play only music written for small instrumental combina. tions, The orchestra played, for the first time on any concert platform, a “Symphony in Miniature,” by David Stanley Smith, dean of the Yale music school. What little we oe of A sounded like a orto ty ernist string quartet, amp the oa of a few wind instru- ments, New Rhapsody Heard Another brand new was Leo Sowerby’s This is our practice the Party is still suf- fering. from the old American anti- political traditions of the working class. In theory our party is for election campaigns, but in practice we have not had until now a single election campaign in which the Party on a national scale or the various party organizations on a local scale really whole-heartedly participated. The recent attempts in New York and Cleveland, have shown that we could not mobilize, the Party mem- bership for an election campaign. Our Party in this respect is like the newly-baptized J. who carries a eat pork. Our-Party carries the theoretical cross- Gf - participation in Ps }election s, but its anti-poli- tical instincts still reject real parti- cipation in election campaigns. The atavistic anti-political inclinations Party | still live too strongly in our Party. It is our duty to fight against these inclinations. We hope that thru the Labor Party campaign and especially thru the thoro fine mobilization of the Party for the presidential and Congressional elections of 1924, we can uproot the last vestiges of the freakish mixture of anti-political op- portunism and anti-political revolu- tionary phrase from our party. gularly beautiful work, a study in musical dusk and mystery. The program ended with a sere- nade and a waltz by d’Indy. They are both small, light, and lively things. Someone has suggested that small orchestras of this kind will sup- plant large symphony orchestras. Perish the thought! The Solo or- chestra is an organization capable of producing worth while and valu- able effects, but the sonority and the fire ofa full orchestra are lack- ing. A_ sort of glorified chamber music is its field, and outside of this graceful and delicate form of art, it has no business to go, 4 And the Thief Escaped, OTTAWA, Feb, 1.—Prof. John Sharp saw a chicken thief prowling about his barn early today. Garbed ee but still cannot |! the united front ostensibly to prove the purity of their principles. In reality, however, these comrades had so little confidence in this purity that they feared to appear in a united front with non-Communist workers, because they were not cer- tain that these workers will not be able to distinguish them from non- Communists. The problem before us is not a compromise with the lower middle class, but the question of how we Communists can free the masses of workers and poor farmers from the influence of lower middle class ide- ology and leadership. Our answer is, thru political action, This an- swer of the supposed “Lefts” is, thru political “propaganda.” It is not very hard to decide. But until this decision has been. definitely made, we should confine the discussion to party comrades. We should guard against sowing mis- trust outside against our party and our movement. Have those who with such self confidence have raised the accusation of reformism stopped to consider what they would do if the decision goes against them? By what means will they restore’ the confidence in the Party among those outside of the party, the confidence which they now destroy with such a light heart, so as not to miss the opportunity to score a run in the race, and not because they want to find the right thing for the Party, but to be “right” in any case. BOUND VOLUMES 1923 LIBERATOR Bound volumes of The Liberator are unquestionably a valuable ad- dition to every library. They con- } tain a wealth of poetry, fiction, drawings and political writings which really constitute an antho- logy of revolutionary Politics, Art and Letters unequalled -in the magazine world. The price in $3.00 per Volume. Postpaid — “The Outstanding Features of the 1923 Liberator Robert Minor: The Throne of The United States; The Throne of The World; “Phe Kaiser’s Mr. ; The Trial of William Z. Foster (with crayon sketch- es), The e cartoon, “Exodus From Dixie.” John Pepper: The Declaration of _ Independence of the American Working Class; The Workers Party and the Federated Farm- er-Labor Party; Facing The Third American Revolution; Shall We Assume Leadership. Floyd Dell’s Serials: The Outline of Marriage; The Opening Chapters of “Literature and The . Machine Age.” Alexander Chramoff’s Series: The Theatre in Soviet Russia, in- cluding an article giving the his- tory of The Moscow Art Theatre which has been translated and reprinted in numerous publica- tions. ~ Jay Lovestone: Treasure Islands —The Story of Gen. Leonard Wood in the Philippines, J. Louis Engdahl: Romance in Journalism—The story of the old Chicago Daily Socialist. 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